Did anyone read that apparently true story in history of the girl that encountered a werewolf while tending to sheep in Pennsylvania? Is there any truth to it? Or was it totally made up?

I've lived in PA for the last 20 years and I've never heard that one. D'you know where the story originated or is supposed to have taken place?

Thats what i am wondering also I read the story from a magazine my friend had a long long time ago and I just remembered it! My friend told me they read that same story in a book

It goes like this a boy that saw this take place writes about it years later of a little girl in PA that was having serious trouble with wolves and she had to watch over the sheep by herself as her parents were always away

anyway this guy who was a young man was hired to work for the little girls parents so this is how he got involved

I cant remember much more then that all i remember is it took place in the hills of Penn


Google seems to not turn up anything on this either which is driving me INSANE!

No, I've never heard of it. Do you remember the magazine title, the article, or any more information? It is kind of useless starting a thread like this if you do not have any more information/evidence except for a faint story at the back of your mind that you heard from an old magazine.

Google is very good tool.

so is reading

I recognize that story...

but I can't seem to find anything on teh interwebz...what magazing did you see this in?

this was the only thing I've found on the net thus far...


source

BIGFOOT! Was it trying to climb out of a freezer?

Sorry.

But I mean, it walked more "upright" than an ape, but if it was dark how could you be sure? Why does it have to be a werewolf? Wouldn't you see a nice, long, muzzle and pointed ears? Wouldn't it be howling at the full moon? For all they know, it could have been some paranoid hiker that needed to shave.

Well, interesting, I guess. Not saying it isn't true or trying to make fun of them - I'm just saying how I don't like it when people automatically assume that it's a werewolf. It could have been a number of other things.

But thanks for the sighting, interesting if nothing else.

yeah, I know it ended up being more of a bigfoot sighting than anything...but the terms werewolf and pennsylvania were both mentioned, and that's all I could find on the net in that respect.

Reminds me of the American Werewolf episode of MonsterQuest. Kept comparing all the sightings to ape-like beings.
Quite a load of crap. What's the fun in having a werewolf abound if all you're going to do is call him a Bigfoot? Think of how he feels!

Never heard the story but I will say they are possible at the very least and undesirable at their very best.

I am afraid that they are not possible at all. The closest someone is going to get to being a werewolf is for them to imagine they are, other than that they are fantasy and will always remain that way.

those two things never go together, and should give it away.
therefore, you know te story was false. the girl might have a seen a wolf, thats all.

hmm, interesting...so how the hell did you come to that conclusion anyways?

I have heard that one and it is not true it was just a plain old timber wolf ^,...,^

I that that I have said this before... but incase I haven't... People believe in bigfoot because he's an ape. People can't believe in the werewolf because people play them out to be a wolf when in all actuality they seem to resemble a baboon more. Elongated forearms long snout. That's just my two cents... and No I have not heard about werewolves in PA. But then again only thing I know about PA is that they make a lot of steel and the constitution was written there.

This case is about a timber wolf nothing more and werewolf cases in the USA tend to resemble more descriptions of a babbon like creature(if not an actual escaped babbon) like the dogman

chances are, you just Summed up and explained Every werewolf attack, that ever happened.

There is the real possibility that bi-pedal canine (or werewolf) is a real creature. Remember the Beast of Seven Chutes photo?
No one has an answer for this photo yet. http://www.beastofsevenchutes.com

I have not, though this did remind me of a story I heard long ago, but I can't remember if it was fiction or if it was claimed to be true... It was (my memory is a little fuzzy of this story, but I'll try my best) about a farm where all of the animals begun to die, and they had been ripped apart and fed upon. One day a group of villagers saw the gastly beast who had attacked their livestock. They quickly attacked it, forcing it to the ground and giving it many wounds. As it was night time and the full moon was up, they thought of it as a werewolf. They tied it up and were about to burn it at the stake, to rid the world of it's evil, when the wolfman spoke. It begged for forgiveness, and the villagers started to believe it wasn't evil, it was harmless. Then a girl who lived at the farm it had killed the livestock of came up to it and said to the villagers to leave it alone, it was only hungry, when the wolf reached it's head down and ripped out the girls throat, it's eyes crazed. The villagers immediately burned the creature, and buried the poor girl.

The story doesn't go exactly like that, but it's the basic story. Anyone heard of it?

I do believe that you're refering to the Northumberland Werewolf case of 1899, involving a young shepherd girl named May Paul and an elderly hermit who was rumored to be a werewolf (I don't have his name.) He watched over the girl but did not interact with her, while wolves took their toll on the neighboring flocks, they never bothered May's. Then one night a hunter spotted an old wolf sulking near by and shot it for the bounty, however it was too dark for him to find it, so he waited until the next morning. Instead of finding the wolf at the end of the blood trail he found the old hermit.

Were you referring to the OP's story or mine? And that story sounds really interesting, I'd love to read into that.

Sound like two different stories to me, the villagers assumed it was a werewolf in Kar-zid's and in the yours the hunter actually shot and followed the blood to an old hermit.

I remember for sure that they were about to burn it and had it tied to the stake.

I was refering to the OP's story, but then again yours might just be another version of the same story... 109 years of chinese whisper. Surely there would have been some kind of record, I mean were not talking the dark ages here. Anyone out there in the Northumberland area care to look in your local library?

never heard of werewolves in Pennsylvania. The illustration by the way is actually from an incident invovling the Beast of Gevedan.It happend in southern France i believe where this large beast attacked and killed quite a few people in the 17th or 18th century.I may have misspelled the area's name.Anyhow, a movie entitled Brotherhood of the Wolf, made in France some time ago is all about this.The King of France even sent one of his royal huntsman after this thing.
There's a story about a werewolf who supposedly attacked a boy in the 1800s in Converse,Texas, but I haven't heard many stories about this.

I always see these misconceptions in werewolf topics. We are talking about a bipedal canine that is always in that form. No metamorphasis between a human and wolf form. That is purely fictional. The reason this happens is because we have no official title other than werewolf or dogman to actually describe this creature. It would be very beneficial if we could come up with a term other than werewolf to describe this bipedal creature. So when it was mentioned this bipedal canine could be possible, then I would say yes, but when they say some guy morphs into a wolf, then no.

Actually my hypothesis has been drawn to the shamanic art of shape-shifting, the projection of spiritual energies of a person to make them seem as if they are a wolf or other animal, most historical accounts of werewolves are not generally depicted as bipedal's. The bipedal werewolf is somewhat of a modern phenomenon. When reading on historical werewolves, what stands out to me is the way in which the beast's change from being almost completely animalistic (as in near indistinguishable from a common wolf) to almost human (grappling with victims, grasping at things,) leading me to believe that the werewolf form is merely a spiritual projection over their human shape or in some cases projected outward through bi-location. Often times you will find reports where the person looks out from under their werewolf visage, allowing witnesses to see the person beneath. The general method of transformation, by use of a wolf-strap or wolf-belt, along with incantations, and potions, adds to my hypothesis that this is actually a spiritual phenomenon and not a metamorphosis or the biological transformation. Furthermore the method of dispatching a werewolf, the famous silver bullet, finds its origins in the Beast of Le Gevadan, which met its end in such fashion. In that case the bullet was not only silver but also melted from a holy object blessed by a priest. Lore will go to show that many creatures were destroyed or held at bay by silver (along with other metals,) fairies and goblins, along with ghosts, a link that these creatures have in common is that they are all spiritual beings without true physical bodies, existing only in ethereal form, as far as the nature of the relation between the metals and the spiritual forms of these creatures I wont begin to speculate here unless its asked of me. I'm merely trying to draw a picture here of the relation between spiritual beings and werewolves, as both are common in world wide lore and have a similar nature. I can go into more detail but, again, only if it's desired.

That's a very plausible opinion, And you've done very well in explaining it and explaining the various parts of the werewolf myth. I'd like to hear more, if it's OK.

Yeah I'm a big nerd when it comes to werewolf info, I have a small library on the topic. The biggest pitfall in serious werewolf research (not limiting the topic to just wolves of course but any animal associated with shapeshifting) is the degree to which these shapeshifting shaman have been altered through fiction. . . Generally werewolves were voluntary participants in their transformation, although it is also a common curse, inflicted by gods, saints, or sorcerers. The cursed being the minority, I will focus on the, dare I say, self inflicted. Many tribal cultures still have a practicing shaman or the equivalent of one who communes with the spirit world for his people, some shaman also take animal form to perform tasks and to travel about quickly, the forms they took varied from culture to culture, canines however seem to be a popular choice in most cultures. Moving on into the Christian era, in Europe the shapeshifting shaman became something of a shady figure, a trickster at best and a merciless killer at worst, soon finding their place in the service of Satan as the most unholy of figures, despised by the general public even below the witches that were being driven to the stake. In later years the same fate would await the American skin-walkers. . . It is my belief that the nature of shapeshifting shaman is not always one of evil, as they are just people like you and me, present on both sides of the moral spectrum, but you don't need to be a werewolf to know that power often corrupts, and when power is in the hands of the oppressed I'm assuming it has an even greater potential to dull the moral standings of the shapeshifters. That in mind, take note that the high point of the werewolf scare took place during an era where being a pagan (like the shapeshifting shaman) was a sure ticket to torture and death.

Hate to leave it hanging like that but I gotta get to bed, I will continue this when I wake.

Yes I am quite familiar with the shaman/witch spiritual transformations you speak of. I am reading a book by Montague Summers titled "The Werewolf" which extensively covers this(you probably have it in your library.) The book cites sources from generally anywhere between the 16th and 19th centuries. In general they discuss if it is truly possible for a man to physically change into a wolf or any animal for that matter(cats,asses,etc.) Those who change are usually witches or those who are bewitched. A pact with Satan is required and once achieved, a demon gives them a special ointment that is to be applied to the naked body. Some other accounts also mention a special hide(probably a wolf's) and special satanic encantations that produce a transformation. Most sources agree though that an actual transformation is impossible; the reason being that only God has the ability to manipulate the flesh. Therefore they explain transformation as an illusion that the demon casts upon the witch to make them think as well as those who encounter the witch as an animal. The author states that these sources are all of european influence(which explains why all the accounts associate werewolves with the devil) and that there are several more theories on shapeshifting from around the world. My main interest in "werewolves" though are the recent encounters like the michigan dogman or beast of bray road stories. I feel that any information before the 20th is not as reliable because all references describe a mystical/demonic creature. I believe there could possibly be an undiscovered specie of bipedal canine and the recent encounters do much better to support this idea. To tell the truth, we are talking about two completely different topics which is the unfortunate consequence of everyone using the term werewolf. We are unable to distinguish between the spiritual shifters and cryptozoological animals. If anyone else understands what I am getting at please let me know and help me come to a resolution. I feel if people were to describe the one topic as spiritual shifters and the other topic as dogman or something like that(let me know if you have something better) and just do away with calling them werewolves, then there would so much more productivity between both topics and each thread wouldnt be interrupted with people who smack talk us just because the topic says werewolf. So, my final words here will be just leave the werewolves to Hollywood.

I do agree that the name 'werewolf', no matter how cool it sounds lol, is not the best way to describe these things. My beleif is that these things could be real, but no way can they transform every full moon, that's pure fiction. Perhaps there is a horde of mysterious beasts out there who are a cross between a wolf and a man, but if there are then they still don't transform, they'd be in that form permanently. How you describe it, bipedal canine, is probably the best way.